The travel agency stores on the streets and alleys have returned, and the tourism industry is accelerating its recovery and changes | Tourism | Travel agencies
To what extent has the rapidly warming tourism industry recovered since the beginning of this year? What changes have occurred? According to information released at the "National Tourism New Forces" press conference hosted by Tongcheng Travel on June 16th, the recovery trend of national tourism revenue and tourist arrivals since the first quarter has been very good, with tourism revenue reaching 97.7% of the same period in 2019, and there is still a slight gap in tourist arrivals. The stores and dedicated operators of travel agencies on the streets and alleys are rapidly returning, reflecting the full resilience of the tourism industry. Therefore, Tongcheng Travel announced the official launch of its offline store franchise plan to better meet the constantly upgrading travel service needs of the national new tourism era.
Silver haired people and Generation Z have become the main force in tourism recovery
Long term focus on the leisure and vacation market, Cheng Chaogong, Chief Researcher of Tongcheng Research Institute, stated that the overall recovery of the tourism industry this year is on a healthy track, to some extent even exceeding industry expectations. For example, the passenger volume of domestic civil aviation exceeded the level of the same period in 2019 in April, and the railway passenger volume also reached a historical high in April and early May. The accommodation industry also experienced a simultaneous increase in both quantity and price.
"Of course, this year has a very obvious characteristic of imbalanced recovery. This is reflected in several aspects, first of all, the asynchronous recovery of income and number of people, then the differences in the recovery process between regions, and third, the differences in the recovery process between different business formats." Cheng Chaogong gave an example, saying that the tourist reception and tourism revenue announced in Nanjing this year exceeded the same period in 2019, but more cities, provinces, and regions have not yet reached such a good state.
From the changes in consumer groups and travel methods, silver haired individuals and Generation Z have become important driving forces for market recovery this year. Yin Shuhu, Vice President of Tongcheng Travel, said that silver haired individuals are currently the main group of people served by tourism institutions. Tourism vacations, especially domestic long-distance trips, require money and time, and many silver haired individuals meet this condition. The "Z generation" born in the 1990s and 2000s are leading a new way of playing vacation products. Another main force in the tourism market is the new middle class born in the 1980s, the vast majority of whom have children and travel with their children and family during holidays.
The demand for small groups and customization is increasing
After the epidemic, the attributes of the entire tourism market have greatly changed from before. Whether it is long-term wholesale, destination group participation, or other businesses, there is an increasing demand for small and customized groups, and personalized requirements are also increasing. "The changing needs of customers also force us practitioners to have more operational tools, flexible element combination abilities, and make products that are more in line with customers' needs."
Yinshu Hu admitted that the online transportation, accommodation, and vacation commonly referred to in the tourism industry are all trillion dollar markets, but the online rate of vacation is the lowest, only slightly higher than 10%. The reason for this is that vacation is a combination product that involves various elements such as food, accommodation, transportation, travel, shopping, entertainment, etc. Tourists directly complete such a combination order online, which is more complex and usually requires sales or human intervention to finally complete the order, especially for long-term tourism products. In order to adapt to market changes and meet the needs of tourists, the first batch of offline franchise stores of Tongcheng Travel are gradually landing in provinces and cities such as Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang, striving to achieve face-to-face communication between tourists and tourism practitioners.
It is worth mentioning that many people have the impression that those who go to travel agency stores are mostly silver haired, and this situation is also changing. From January to May this year, Cheng Chaogong noticed an interesting phenomenon: among the users of tourism and vacation groups, the proportion of young people under the age of 35 was significantly higher than before the epidemic. "I think this is a good thing. Young people are more active in the consumer end, which will also bring many new opportunities. For example, there was a report recently that young people fall in love with the elderly group, and the elderly like 'more, faster, and less'. Some young people also like this. The popular' special forces style tourism 'among young people has very similar demands to the elderly group."
Nowadays, some young customers attracted through community-based operations also seek face-to-face services at nearby travel agency stores, making the new generation of stores different from before. Tourism industry insiders believe that the "online+offline" layout promoted by large platforms, as well as the technological dividends brought by the new wave of digitalization, will provide traditional enterprises with opportunities to break through or acquire new customer groups. The epidemic has caused a group of travel agency stores to disappear, and another group of new stores after the industry reshuffle will appear in the streets and alleys with a trend of mushrooms after rain.
